


And I Will Wash The Danger From Your Skin

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, Bathing/Washing, Dom/sub Undertones, Engagement, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-10 18:51:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1163240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zombie apocalypse AU.  Petra belongs to Levi, even after things go to hell.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And I Will Wash The Danger From Your Skin

**Author's Note:**

> I promised my roommate I would write her Levi/Petra with zombies, and this happened.

It's been almost two months since the zombie apocalypse chased Petra and her fiancé out of their apartment.

The thing she misses most shouldn't be the sex, but it is. She misses the weight of Levi's body on top of hers, the headboard bruises on her knuckles, the sore joints, the rush of joy when she notices the marks on her skin in the middle of the day.

But she doesn't miss the intimacy, because that? That they still have.

The light through the windows of the barn is fast fading, just enough to illuminate the new hollowness to Levi's face. They don't have much to eat, and what they do have, they viciously ration. It's one of the few things Levi and Erwin had agreed on from the beginning. They'd fought nearly nonstop at the beginning of the infection, after they'd sheltered together in an abandoned 7-Eleven. They hadn't yet met Hanji and Moblit then, and they'd had only one other companion.

Having to put Ilse out of her post-bite misery with nothing other than a shovel put a stop to the arguing pretty quickly.

Erwin is across the barn from them, having some kind of hushed conversation with Moblit, who has Hanji in his lap, already asleep. Hanji is the most... _enthusiastic_ of their traveling party, and they often wear themselves out before the group makes camp. The five of them sleep close together, but right now, Levi has led Petra as far away from the others as they can get without leaving their shelter.

She sits obediently when he gestures for her to do so, trying not to look too enthusiastic. He pulls a rag and a plastic bottle from his backpack, pouring a bit of precious water onto the bit of towel.

In the beginning, this had seemed like an extension of her husband-to-be's clean freak tendencies. It had only been after he'd snapped at Hanji about zombie blood getting into cuts that she'd realized what, exactly, this ritual was about.

The first stroke of the damp rag pushes her overgrown bangs out of her face. She lets her eyes fall closed, and if Levi notices the soft, blissful sigh she exhales, he doesn't comment on it. He is firm in his movements as he washes her face, cleaning away even the smallest drips of infected blood that might have sprayed off her crowbar during the day.

He doesn't stop with her face. She can hear him shift, his knees hit the dirt floor as he leans over her. She doesn't wince when he sacrifices another splash of water, this time directly into her hair. His fingers are rough but meticulous as he combs them through her hair, carefully removing bits of dead flesh and cleaning away the blood.

Hanji had once joked that Petra must be like them, totally incapable of taking care of their hair without a good boyfriend around. They were wrong, of course. Petra can take perfect care of herself. But she's Levi's, and, well. Levi's always taken good care of his things.

He squeezes the water out of her hair when he's through, and she almost mourns the loss of his breath against her skin. He doesn't get this close much, not anymore. She knows he can't, with Erwin sleeping two feet away or Hanji asking nonstop invasive questions, but she still misses it.

The next part is her favorite part, though. Levi re-dampens the rag and takes her right hand. He presses it under her fingernails, removing the dirt and grime and checking for hangnails or splinters. He tells Hanji that it's for safety's sake, but Petra knows this isn't entirely true. Before the world ended, he used to have her keep her fingernails perfectly in order, cut short and polished with clear top coat to strengthen them. He'd always paid for it, without her ever having to ask.

When they're as clean as they're going to get, he moves onto the left hand. It's here that Petra holds her breath. She lets it out all in one go when he slides her engagement ring off her finger. It's nothing special on it's own, something that's affordable on a blue collar salary without making any major sacrifices, but she adores it. It's what it symbolizes that always made it important, and makes it even _more_ important now. She'd cried, the first time Levi had carefully rubbed the dirt and blood from the setting of the tiny diamond.

She still feels the tightness in her chest when he slides it, gleaming like new, back onto her finger. It feels like another proposal, or just an echo of the original one. No matter how much the world goes to hell, she can still wear Levi's mark, and he will take care of her, sacrifice his drinking water to keep a declaration of love clean.

He doesn't kiss her, before or after he stands up to head back over to the others.

He doesn't need to.


End file.
